Subject: Conditions in the Camps
I was wondering if anyone has some information about the living conditions
in the WW-II internment camps.
Subject: Re: Conditions in the Camps
Here are some quotes I had handy in my computer. They were research for
a church article, so they pretty churchy. However, they do describe
the crummy conditions.
From "Serious Injustices ", by Paul M. Nagano, American Baptist Historical Society,
Valley Forge PA. American Baptist Quarterly, Vol. XVII, No. 2, June, 1998:
We were hustled... onto old trains and transplanted to desolate
wastelands... [Seeing] soldiers with their guns pointed at us as we
transferred from the train ... I suddenly felt like a prisoner of war ...
I felt betrayed by my country ...
I saw a guard tower and a barbed-wire enclosure. Unfinished tarpaper
barracks were lined row upon row ... My [family] and I -- seven in all --
crowded into a room measuring twenty feet by twenty-five feet ... there is
no doubt in my mind that they were concentration camps. These camps were
not established to 'protect the Japanese American from misguided citizens
on the outside' as ... claimed; the guns were pointed inward, not outward.
From "Nisei Christian Journey, Its Promise & Fulfillment", Nisei Christian Oral History
Project, Presbyterian Conference & the Northern California Japanese
Christian Federation, 1988:
"The train ride [to Jerome] was so long that I can't even remember how many
days it took. The meals ...were meager and also the bathroom facility was
bad. The train was one of the relics that were taken out for the emergency.
It was miserably hot, stuffy and crowded.
"When we got to Jerome, we were told that one person out of every home
would have to volunteer to dig ditches, chop wood and do other things for
each block. My husband refused to go so I used a pickaxe for ditches and
two-man saws to cut wood and also brought in the coal.
... the barracks [had] ditches around them so the blocks wouldn't get
flooded ... it was a swampland and we had to struggle to survive.
From "Ministry in the 'assembly' and Relocation Centers of World War II",
Lester E. Suzuki, Yardbird Publishing Co., Berkeley, CA., 1979:
Organizing a church was not always easy. Lester Suzuki describes the start
of efforts of a "small band of people" to start the first Catholic Church
in Heart Mountain:
Late in October [1942], Maryknoll ... sent Father Harold Felsedecker, who had
spent many years in the Orient ...
After some months of constant moving... the church was finally assigned a
portion of a building for their use exclusively, at least on Sundays. The
room was bare except for some benches, An altar was improvised each time
for mass ... having no storage, the paraphernalia was transferred in the
priest's car.
From "Triumphs of Faith, Stories of Japanese American Christians During WWII",
Edited by Victor N. Okada, Japanese Internment Project, Los Angeles, 1998:
Conditions were crude at first. A Nisei in Poston recalls:
We sat on makeshift wooden benches or on boxes and sang hymns led by adult
leaders just a few years older than us ... with the help of a portable
organ that had to be pumped with both feet ... like a sewing machine.
Although we did not have hymnals, we sang songs from memory... P 35.
Nevertheless, the internees got to work making the camps habitable:
The army-style barracks were so poorly constructed that during the frequent
dust storms, dust would come through all the cracks. We used newspaper to
fill the cracks and tin can covers to cover the many knotholes n the wood.
Father, who had smuggled a few tools... used them to make a table and
chairs from scrap wood... P 91.
After 25 years as a missionary in rural Japan, Rev. Herbert Nicholson, a
Quaker was asked to take over the Japanese Methodist Chruch in Pasadena.
Nicholson and his wife visited Manzanar, Poston and Gila River camps.
"While the majority of people on the outside kept their distance, we were
fortunate that people like Reverend and Mrs. Herbert Nicholson, a Quaker
missionaries who had served in Japan, would visit and bring a truckful of
item like baby cribs, blankets, newspapers and magazines. Through his
church in [Pasadena] other churches regularly donated things for the
internees. P 105 Muts Okada"
Subject: Pilgrimages (Was: Conditions in the Camps)
How many of you have attended the Tule Lake or Manzanar Pilgrimages?
What effect did they have on you?
Have you had experiences with other camp reunions or visits? What was the
effect?
Subject: Re: Pilgrimages
> How many of you have attended the Tule Lake or Manzanar Pilgrimages?
> What effect did they have on you?
i've attended several pilgrimages to Manzanar and went on the Tule Lake
Pilgrimage for the first time last year.
Manzanar was home to both of my parent's families and it is a very
important, spiritual experience for me. it always gives me a chance to
focus directly on what's inside me from my history and what's going on in
my life presently.
i've yet to run the "50/500" from L.A. to Manzanar, but that's something i
must do ... hopefully in the near future!
my father joined my grandfather in Tule Lake. from there my grandfather
went back to Japan, having been totally betrayed by the country where
he raised all of his children. he left my baa-chan and the kids
here ... my baa-chan insisted that the family stay with her...
the pilgrimage is organized like a conference.
i attended with my parents and made some pretty solid connections with others
my age. it is something that i really believe people should attend,
keeping in mind that they are not just making a pilgrimage to understand
more about the past ... but beyond that to understand more about themselves
and the country we live in. meeting people who were incarcerated, who
were dragged on the grounds of the stockade, who knew young girls and
womyn who were molested and raped on camp grounds ... i not only absorbed a
lot on a personal level, i left Tule with a deeper context for my
connection to our small Nikkei community -- we do have a history full of
resistance to the hardships we face.
hope to see those of you who can make it this year at Manzanar - the last
Saturday of April...
Subject: Re: Pilgrimages
> How many of you have attended the Tule Lake or Manzanar Pilgrimages?
> What effect did they have on you?
I attended the Manzanar Pilgrimage a couple years ago for the first
time since moving to California from the Midwest.
It was a wonderful and "spiritual" experience, perhaps
the ironic contrast between the natural beauty and the sadness
surrounding the WWII internment camp experience gave it
meaning ...
My uncle was interned there, and I grew up hearing his
stories about Manzanar (one of my few relatives who likes talking
about camp), so it was great to finally be "there". My uncle's family
was one of the first to arrive at Manzanar, and one of their tasks was
to clear out the area of scorpions.
Subject: Re: Pilgrimages
> How many of you have attended the Tule Lake or Manzanar Pilgrimages?
> What effect did they have on you?
Yep, I've had many an opportunity to check out the kamps and visit them,
especially Manzanar and Gila River.
The first time that I went to Manzanar, my friend and I were going to a
rockclimbing trip up in Yosemite and figured out that Manzanar was
somewhere on the I-395. On the way back we stopped over and tried to
find the site. At first we just found the markers at the southside
entrance, but since I had seen pictures of an obelisk around there, we
went looking for it. I don't know how we found it, but we did, and I
have to say that it's a whole different thing to go up there by yourself
and to be there in that desolation with only the spirits of the dead for
company. The land speaks to you in a different way, that's for sure.
Later on I went on some Manzanar Pilgrimages and saw that whole thing.
They were cool for the most part, but there was just a little bit too
much patriotism there sometimes for me. I definitely didn't appreciate
the white military people who were there, considering that they probably
supported the camps during that time. I spoke with some of them,
and that's the impression that I got.
The flags that people put up around the camps were the biggest insult of
all. No, I don't enjoy seeing the American flag posted around the camps
and frankly it makes me sick. All this patriotic flag-waving
can go to hell as far as I'm concerned, considering what my family
had to go through. The way I look at it, a lot of my family fought for
this country, so I don't think we have to prove how American we are
anymore. And today, I don't know if I can say that the flag really means
anything significant, considering America's history around the world and
what it's currently doing (bombings in Sudan, Afghanistan, and
Iraq, for example).
The search for a more meaningful expression of remembrance
brought me to the 50-500 committee's annual Little Tokyo to
Manzanar 250-mile run in '95 and '96. This event involves running from
downtown L.A. to Manzanar in rotating circuits over the course of several
days, and is symbolic of the suffering that our people
went through during the camps. I highly recommend this,
especially to young people. While it is physically draining,
it is very spiritually fulfilling.
In '95 I had the opportunity to drive through Arizona, and on the way I
decided to drop a museum along the way which talked about the camps.
I went searching for it and talked to some residents about where the Japanese
American Concentration Camps were, and some black guy goes, "Oh, you mean
the Jap Camps?" Anyways, they gave me directions, and I rolled
out there and saw those camps too. I kind of tripped on the memorial out
there, which is on a hill overlooking the camps. Again, I think
it's kind of different when you go to the camps by yourself.
In any case, hopefully one of these days I will be able to check out
Rohwer, where my great-grandfather was interned during the War.
Subject: Re: Pilgrimages
Thanks for such a detailed account of your experiences. I have yet to visit
any of these places, but I hope to some day. I have a few questions (see below)
> Later on I went on a few Manzanar Pilgrimages and saw that whole thing.
> They were cool for the most part, but there was just a little bit too
> much patriotism there sometimes for me. I definitely didn't appreciate
> the white military people who were there, considering that they probably
> supported the camps during that time. I spoke with some of them, and
> that's the impression that I got.
This attitude you describe is pretty amazing! Most American hakujin I meet
who learn that my family was interned are always so apologetic. It was
interesting for me to meet my mother's high school classmates who were angry
and hurt that she and other Nikkei were carried off to points unknown back
then, and that they could do nothing about it. Obviously, not everyone
shares these sentiments. Who organizes these Pilgrimages? Are they only to
Manzanar and Tule Lake, or are there any to other camps, as well? Who
maintains these camps anyway?
> The search for a more meaningful expression of remembrance
> brought me to the 50-500 committee's annual Little Tokyo to
> Manzanar 250-mile run. This event involves running from
> downtown L.A. to Manzanar in rotating circuits over the course
> of several days, and is symbolic of the suffering that our
> people went through during the camps.
When is this run? How long has it been taking place? I don't quite
understand how a rotating circuit works. How far does each person run? 250
miles for one person sounds like a long distance, even for someone who can
do the Ironman. How can I find out more about Pilgrimages and this 50-500 run?
> One of these days I will be able to check out Rohwer,
> where my great-grandfather was interned during the War.
My father's family was also interned in Rohwer. We have pictures from the
1960s when he last visited there. I hear it's pretty run down and not very
well maintained. Since it is in Arkansas, I get the idea that it is not
regarded with the same significance as the ones out West. I have some friends
from Arkansas who had no idea there were two camps (Jerome and Rohwer).
The Japanese internment was merely footnote in the American history they
learned in school.
Subject: Re: Pilgrimages
> it's a whole different thing to go up there by yourself
> and to be there in that desolation.
I know what you mean. I stopped at Manzanar on the way back from a
hiking trip. The majesty of the Sierras rising above the camp are
perceived in a whole different way when you imagine the barbed wire and the
city folk and families who were not there for recreation...
> I definitely didn't appreciate the white military people who were there,
> considering that they probably supported the camps during that time.
> I spoke with some of them, and that's the impression that I got.
Wow! why were they even there?
> The Little Tokyo to Manzanar 250-mile run involves running from
> downtown L.A. to Manzanar in rotating circuits over the course
> of several days, and is symbolic of the suffering that our people
> went through during the camps.
Sounds like a great way to run off the rage, feel the despair, and keep on going.
> In '95 I had the opportunity to drive through Arizona, and I
> decided to drop by a museum along the way which talked about the
> camps. I kind of tripped on the memorial outthere, which is elevated
> on a hill overlooking the camps.
Where exactly is this museum? The memorial? My mom was at Poston. She took
me and my kids to a Poston reunion where about 400 people showed up, were
bussed to the Poston Memorial, stood for an hour listening to speeches, got
back on the bus and went back to the Laughlin casinos. The attendees seemed
to be mostly Nisei who were children or youths during camp, still in the
"we had fun in camp" mode, and intent on reuniting with old friends.
I took my three kids to the Tule Lake Pilgrimage even though none of my
family was at Tule. Every minute of the three-day event was planned. From
the vidoes on the bus to the lunch stop on the way for food made by
Fujinkai ladies. Intergenerational discussion groups, panels, performances,
camp tours led by Jimi Yamaichi, who knows the camp like the back of his
hand because his "job" at camp was to help maintain the infrastructure.
In contrast to the "white military" guys you mentioned, two of the white
attendees were a 90-year-old Quaker woman who had taught school at camp,
and a minister who wasn't allowed to live at the camp, so he rented a shack
ten miles away and bicycled in every day. There were lots of internees who
were ready to talk about their experiences. Tule had a real cross-section of
internees -- the "Yes-Yes" people who later were sent elsewhere, the
"No-No"s who were brought there. Lots of kibei. I had so many conversations
and learned so much.
Tule Lake is still referred to as the "Jap camp" by locals. The area was
drained by the Bureau of Reclaimation. Are the war WWII vets were given
priorty opportunity to buy land cheap. They bought old camp barracks for
$1 apiece. We got a chance to visit one -- abandoned and listing in a potato
field. We could walk inside and feel the size of the rooms. It had been
used as post-War migrant labor quarters, which also resonated for me,
because my grandparents had to be migrant laborers post-War, having
lost their pre-War 140-acre farm.
The Tule Lake Pilgrimage was life-changing. Both my daughter and I now
work at a Nikkei historical society.
Subject: Re: Pilgrimages
Manzanar Pilgrimage Info:
This year it will be on Saturday, April 24, 1999. Usually, groups charter buses
and leave L.A. around 7 am and arrive at Manazanar around 11 am. There is a program
and pot luck style lunch and everyone leaves around 2 pm and returns to L.A.
around 6 or 7 pm. You can also take your own car; many plan for the weekend
and continue on after the Pilgrimage to the High Sierras to do some fishing,
since the Pilgrimage always lands on Opening Day for trout fishing in the
Sierras.
Last updated 28 February 1999